It’s Time
Nehemiah 2: 13-18
I wish you all could
have been with me this week at the National Gathering of ECO. Time after time I
was challenged. Sometimes it was by recognized experts in their fields. Once it
was by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. One of the most powerful
challenges came from neither, but from a minister named Linda Snyder. Linda is
the pastor of Middle Presbyterian Church in Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania. It is a
small country church with a small membership. Its existence predates the United
States itself, having been formed in 1772.
Middle Presbyterian’s future was trapped by its history in both its
buildings and its thoughts until it finally had to confront them. In an act of
great corporate courage, this little church has gone after its future in God’s
plan. It is re-modeling its historic sanctuary. It is replacing its ancient
pews with chairs! It has changed its mission statement, which now reads: “To reach the lost at any cost” and its
vision statement, which now reads: “To be
a historic congregation for a contemporary world.” Middle Presbyterian is
no longer in the middle. It’s not just renovating its facilities. It’s
renovating its commitment.
We talked some about Nehemiah a few
weeks ago. I want to return to that story today to mine it a little further. In
the second chapter, Nehemiah goes out at night to inspect the walls of
Jerusalem. They are bad. The walls are down. The gates are destroyed. These are
walls made of stones. Big stones. The walls
to be restored were 7-11 feet thick and 9 or more feet high. To undertake the
task of rebuilding will require the efforts of all the people and faith in God
that transcends all the doubt that not only surrounds their efforts, but
threatens their resolve.
It is not a question of whether
Nehemiah is up to the task. He is their leader, but he is only one man. It is
not a question of whether God is up to it. We all know that answer. The
question is: Are those who would be God’s people up to it? Are they up to the
task? It will come at a cost, and there will be those who want them to fail.
Now I’ve gotta ask. What is the big
deal about the walls? Jerusalem’s walls had been down seventy two years. Why
rebuild them now? Why was it so important for Nehemiah to take on this project
and lead the people of Jerusalem to take part? There was somewhat of a safety
issue, but again, the walls had been down for a couple generations. What was
it? It was way more than safety.
For Nehemiah, re-building the walls
of Jerusalem was a God thing. There really was not a pressing need, if you
think in human terms. But if you’re doing kingdom thinking, that’s a whole new
ball game. Think about it. Nehemiah was helping re-build the city of God!
The book of Nehemiah is only twelve
chapters, but it contains as least ten prayers from Nehemiah. Why is Nehemiah
always praying? Because what he proposes to do is too big for the personnel.
It’s too big for the schedule. It’s just too big. And that’s how Nehemiah knows
that he’s going to be part of a God thing. And prayer is big to Nehemiah,
because he knows that the job is too big without God. Nehemiah has to have
faith. Big faith. Big enough that with God’s help, he can convince the people
to get on board.
The book of Nehemiah is a story of
big faith. The people of God got on board all right. In spite of all the
obstacles they faced, in spite of all the other tasks they had to do to live,
they brought in the wall project. In 52 short days, the walls of Jerusalem were
rebuilt. How did it happen? Why did it happen? It happened because those walls
were a symbol of something much bigger. They were a symbol of God’s people
dedicating themselves to kingdom work, regardless of what others thought, even
regardless of what else they had to do.
Listen again to the
words of Nehemiah:
17 Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are
in,
how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come,
let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no
longer suffer derision.” 18 And I
told them of the hand
of my God that had been
upon me for good, and also
of the words that the king had spoken to me. And they
said, “Let us rise up and build.” So they strengthened
their hands for the good
work.
We have been about the task of gathering
information for months now. We have learned a lot. We will never learn enough.
There will always be more to know. But it’s time. We don’t need new facilities
to be God’s church. We don’t need a sanctuary or a fellowship hall or
classrooms to do kingdom work. But we do need to act out our faith. Let’s begin
again. It’s time to build something for God.
Listen today to what your leaders have to say, to what they have
learned. Search your heart. Then make your decision and have it counted. And
once we have decided, then strengthen
your hands for the good work. Kingdom
work. Let’s not just renovate our facilities. Let’s renovate our commitment.
